Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) has recently emerged as one of the hottest trends in clinical psychology. Supporters of EMDR report dramatic results when used as a treatment for patients suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other related disorders wherein the patient experiences recurring high levels of anxiety due to the painful and emotional memories associated with a particular traumatic experience or a series of traumatic events which occur over a period of time. Such trauma-based disorders are common to war veterans, rape and assault victims, and survivors of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, and the like.
The EMDR technique is described in a paper by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D., entitled "Eye Movement Desensitization: A New Treatment For Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder", J. Behav. Ther. & Exp. Psychiat. Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 211-217 (1989). In accordance with the teachings of this paper, the patient is instructed to hold three things in his or her mind including: a single image of the traumatic incident; the associated emotion and body sensation; and the related negative thought. During this time, the patient's eyes visually track the therapist's hand, with two fingers raised, while the hand is swept rhythmically back and forth along the line of vision of the patient. After each set or "saccade" of eye movements, the patient is asked to rate their level of anxiety or other discomfort. It has been found that the above described EMDR technique has been successful in treating cases of PTSD and other trauma disorders.
It is believed that the saccadic eye movements stimulate reprocessing of the traumatic memories and their associated thoughts and feelings by opening up the network of traumatic memories to input from the conscious mind of the patient.
One difficultly encountered by the therapist in administering the EMDR treatment is maintaining a controlled rate of speed and an accurate path of their raised finger's for prolonged time periods, thus resulting in jerky eye movement which may increase, rather than decrease stress in the patient.
Devices are known from the prior an for overcoming the above-described problem. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,343,261, issued to Wilson, discloses a device for inducing saccadic eye movement which includes a wand and support structure for holding the wand in a horizontal position within the patient's field of view. The wand is provided with a number of evenly spaced light emitting diodes (LEDs) disposed along its length. In use, the LEDs are turned on and off in linear sequence. This induces saccadic movement of the patient's eyes as the patient visually tracks the sequential back and forth illumination of the LEDs. The wand support structure is provided with height and angle adjustment capability for presetting a desired use position for each new patient.
Wilson's device also includes a separate control mechanism for presetting the rate and duration of the illumination of the LEDs for each treatment session. Wilson's device advantageously relieves the therapist the manual task of moving their hand in a back and forth manner along a controlled path and with even tempo, thereby allowing the therapist to concentrate more on the patient's reactions during the treatment session so that they can better evaluate the effectiveness of the EMDR treatment.
An apparatus which would provide a patient varying degrees of distracting or competing input stimulus, in addition to eye movement stimulus, would be desirable since it could provide more rapid and complete EMDR treatment results. Such distracting or competing input stimulus should preferably assist the patient in holding in their conscience mind an image of the traumatic event or events, the associated emotional and body sensation, and the related negative thought. In this regard, it would be desirable to incorporate visual aids which focus the patient's mental imaging and thought processes during the eye movement stimulus.
Further, it would be desirable to enable a patient to control the rate and duration of his or her eye movement stimulus and other competing or distracting input stimulus during the EMDR treatment and thereby provide increased effectiveness of treatment.